Numerous forms of toy water guns, or water pistols as they are sometimes called, are known. Generally they comprise a reservoir, some form of pump for supplying a discrete amount of water under pressure from the reservoir to an outlet nozzle where it is emitted as a high speed squirt of water. Sometimes the pump is directly manually operated by a trigger and in other cases the pump can be electrically operated with the trigger acting on an electrical switch.
Generally toy water guns of this type comprise a pump including a piston movable along a cylinder and inlet and outlet valves for pumping water from the reservoir and delivering it under pressure to the nozzle. In such pumps the inlet and outlet valves have frequently been of the type where a small metal ball is pressed by a metal spring against a seating aligned with a bore for the passage of water, such that the pressure of water on the downstream side of the ball can lift the ball from its seating to allow water to pass the ball but once that pressure is removed then the spring will press the ball back against its seating and prevent the passage of water in the return direction.
Such valves are well known but do have certain disadvantages. In particular the springs need to be of a high quality to ensure consistency of action and therefore only when the more expensive materials and higher quality springs and the like are used can one expect reasonable reliability. Toy water guns by their very nature are designed to be cheap items however and there is therefore a clear conflict between the aims of producing a cheap toy water gun and a gun of good reliability in use.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a valve which can be used particularly for the inlet valve for the pump, which can be relatively cheaply produced but can be of good reliability.